The Mexican-American heavyweight won his second title defense in a row in UFC 166’s main event, beating former champion Junior dos Santos nearly the same way he did in December when he regained the title from the Brazilian.

The fifth-round TKO finish against the world’s second-best heavyweight left the MMA world wondering if there is any fighter with the skills to stop Velasquez before he makes UFC history.

The next one to get his shot, according to UFC President Dana White, likely will be Brazilian submission specialist Fabricio Werdum, a big, athletic heavyweight who has rounded out his overall game in recent years but has remained largely untested since returning to the UFC in 2012.

“His whole game has improved,” White said of Werdum (17-5-1 MMA, 5-2 UFC) after the pay-per-view main event at Houston’s Toyota Center. “The guy’s a big, strong, durable guy. And (with) his jiu-jitsu, he’s going to want to go to the ground, which makes this fight very interesting.”

There might be no more fitting opponent for Velasquez’s potentially historic third title defense. It was Werdum who dethroned the last dominant heavyweight great in Fedor Emelianenko.

That huge upset in the opening round of the Strikeforce heavyweight grand prix brought one heavyweight era to an end.

Now it seems Werdum will get a chance to do the same in the UFC and against an opponent who, at least physically, is not so dissimilar from the one he knocked off in his last shot at playing spoiler.

At a little more than 6 feet and well under the 265-pound weight limit, Velasquez is one of the UFC’s smallest heavyweights. He also has been its most dominant in recent years and seems to be just getting started.

Velasquez avenged his only loss in his two victories against dos Santos and likely would come into a bout vs. Werdum as a heavy favorite thanks to his speed and indefatigable pace.

Recent opponents have withered under Velasquez’s pressure. The task of dethroning him only gets tougher as he grows more confident in his stand-up attack.

That all adds up to a tough night of work for Werdum, but he has been there before. If he can rise to the occasion again, he’ll get his own chance to make a permanent home atop the division.

If not, he’ll get to be a part of heavyweight history all over again. This time it would be on the wrong side of the equation.

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